Top Menu

Football Stadium DigestFootball Stadium Digest covers major stories and events in the planning, construction and operations of NCAA and professional NFL football stadiums across the United States and Canada.

Sheldon Adelson: I Could Walk Away from Raiders Stadium

Apparently frustrated with his ongoing negotiations with the Oakland Raiders, billionaire Sheldon Adelson says he could walk away from a Las Vegas stadium deal.

As a partner in the project, Adelson is kicking in $650 million for the $1.9 billion project. The funding also includes another $500 million from the Raiders and, in a recent boost for the proposal, $750 million in public funds. With the public contribution secured, Raiders owner Mark Davis has been openly discussing the team’s desire to relocate.

The issue, however, is how the two private partners in the project would benefit from the stadium and how related revenue would be shared. Adelson says that the Raiders have not offered suitable terms, and that he could back out of the deal. More from Reuters:

“I negotiated to bring in the Oakland Raiders, an NFL football team from Oakland, because they don’t have a stadium there, that I would build a stadium and rent it out to the Oakland Raiders,” Adelson said on Wednesday during a travel technology conference in Tel Aviv.

Adelson, who succeeded this month in getting legislation passed to enable the construction of the stadium, said his problems now involve negotiations with the Raiders.

“They want so much,” he said. “So I told my people, ‘Tell them I could live with the deal, I could live without the deal. Here’s the way it’s gonna go down. If they don’t want it, bye-bye,'” he said.

Finalizing terms with Adelson is key to the Raiders’ efforts. As the NFL studies the Las Vegas market, it will likely take into account whether the Raiders have a workable agreement in place that benefits the team and the league. Previous reports have indicated that some in the NFL, including commissioner Roger Goodell, might prefer to see the team stay in Oakland.

In Oakland, an effort involving a private/public partnership for a stadium on the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site still needs to resolve some key details. While that makes a solution in Oakland uncertain, it still seems that the Raiders have some gaps to close before they can tout Las Vegas as their best option.